Offseason Outlook: Washington Wizards
Guaranteed Contracts
- Nene ($13,000,000)
- Andray Blatche ($7,118,502)
- John Wall ($5,915,880)
- Jan Vesely ($3,202,920)
- Kevin Seraphin ($1,797,600)
- Chris Singleton ($1,551,840)
- Trevor Booker ($1,385,280)
- Jordan Crawford ($1,198,680)
Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Contracts
- Rashard Lewis ($22,699,551; partially guaranteed for $13,699,551)
- Shelvin Mack ($762,195)
Free Agents (Cap Holds)
- Cartier Martin ($1,060,120 – QO)
- Morris Almond ($1,060,120 – QO)
- Brian Cook ($854,389)
- Maurice Evans ($854,389)
- James Singleton ($854,389)
Draft Picks
- 1st Round (Pending lottery; 19.9% chance at first overall pick)
- 2nd Round (32nd overall)
- 2nd Round (46th overall)
Cap Outlook
- Guaranteed Salary: $48,870,253
- Non-Guaranteed Salary, Cap Holds: $14,445,602
- Total (not including draft picks): $63,315,855
2011/12 was a tale of two seasons for the Washington Wizards, who took an ugly 9-33 record into the trade deadline. On March 15th, the Wizards traded away two veterans in JaVale McGee and Nick Young; a few days later the team shut down Andray Blatche for the remainder of the season. Washington went on to post an 11-13 post-deadline record, including a 7-4 mark in games that new Wizard Nene played.
While calling the Wizards a .500 team going forward may be a little optimistic, there are certainly reasons to be optimistic. The arrival of Nene seemed to have a positive impact on the team both on and off the court, and the disappointing and out-of-shape Blatche may have played his last game as a Wizard. And while Washington hasn't quite reached the end of Rashard Lewis' bloated contract, the team has the option of riding it out for one more season or buying him out and saving $9MM.
Besides Nene, Blatche, and Lewis, every Wizards player with a guaranteed contract next season is still on his rookie contract. John Wall, Kevin Seraphin, Jordan Crawford, and Trevor Booker are entering their third years, while Jan Vesely and Chris Singleton will be second-year players. The Wizards are a young team and figure to get a little younger in June, with three draft picks, including a top-five selection.
The primary goal of 2012/13 for the Wizards should be figuring out which of those young players are long-term core pieces and which are expendable. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean the kids should get all the playing time — I think Washington's young core would benefit from some veteran leadership, and a healthy Nene is a good start. But the Wizards' focus this summer should be on continuing to surround their young talent with the right kind of veteran presence. That means deciding whether to bring back Blatche or Lewis, or to simply cut their losses.
There's not much chance the Wizards find a trade they like for Blatche, so the amnesty clause seems like the obvious solution to wipe the remaining three years on his contract off the books. Lewis represents a trickier case, since he'll count for nearly $14MM against the cap whether or not he's on the team, but I think it makes sense to let him go. If he's a Wizard next season, Lewis will likely just be playing out the string, looking ahead to eventually joining a contender. Adding a veteran free agent that genuinely wants to be in Washington will have a more positive effect on Wall and the young core — it's just a matter of finding a veteran willing to choose a team coming off a 20-46 season.
March's blockbuster Nene trade was the Wizards' first step in shedding the team's old reputation and building a new-look roster. Parting ways with Blatche and Lewis this summer should be the second step. Washington also has a one-in-five chance of landing Anthony Davis to really fast-track the rebuilding process, but even if the draft lottery isn't kind to them, the Wizards are on the right track with Wall, Nene, and a young nucleus of players that won't get too expensive for a few more years.
Storytellers Contracts and Sham Sports were used in the creation of this post.
Gregg Popovich Named Coach Of The Year
Gregg Popovich has been named the NBA's 2011/12 Coach of the Year, the league officially announced today. It's the second Red Auerbach trophy for the longtime Spurs coach, who also took home the award in 2003.
Popvich's Spurs entered the season as something of an afterthought in a Southwest Division that also featured the defending champion Dallas Mavericks. Although the Spurs didn't receive much recognition in experts' preseason predictions, San Antonio finished the season tied for the NBA's best record at 50-16.
Popovich led the team to three separate 11-game winning streaks and a number one seed in the West, while managing to rest his stars frequently during the lockout-shortened season. He also integrated other teams' cast-offs like Boris Diaw and Stephen Jackson into his rotation over the season's final few weeks, and was responsible for arguably the box-score highlight of the year.
Tom Thibodeau of the Bulls, Frank Vogel of the Pacers, Lionel Hollins of the Grizzlies, and Doc Rivers of the Celtics were among the other candidates for the award, finishing second through fifth respectively.
Odds & Ends: Kahn, Howard, Parzenski, Kings
As the Celtics, 76ers, and Nuggets look to even up their respective series tonight before heading home, let's round up some odds and ends from around the league:
- NBA commissioner David Stern doesn't believe Derrick Rose's torn ACL or other major injuries were caused by the condensed 2011/12 schedule, as he told Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio. ESPN Chicago has details and quotes.
- Stephen Litel of HoopsWorld wonders if keeping David Kahn as the team's GM is the best idea for the Timberwolves. Minnesota exercised its option on Kahn for 2012/13 last week.
- Magic GM Otis Smith will travel to the Los Angeles area to check in on Dwight Howard's recovery from back surgery, writes Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel.
- Polish seven-footer Jakub Parzenski declared for the draft prior to Sunday's early-entry deadline, tweets Jonathon Givony of DraftExpress.com. Parzenski is ranked just 20th among 1991-born international players by DraftExpress.
- Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee outlines the latest developments, or lack thereof, in the "unhappy marriage" between the Kings and the city of Sacramento.
Cap Holds
Although a team like the Cavaliers has only committed about $28.5MM in guaranteed money to player salaries for 2012/13, that doesn't mean Cleveland will have $30MM to spend on free agents. Each of the Cavs' own free agents will be assigned a free agent amount or "cap hold" until the player signs a new contract or has his rights renounced by the team.
The following criteria are used for determining the amount of a free agent's cap hold:
- First-round pick coming off rookie contract: 250% of previous salary if prior salary was below league average; 200% of previous salary if prior salary was above league average
- Bird player: 190% of previous salary (if below average) or 150% (if above average)
- Early Bird player: 130% of previous salary
- Non-Bird player: 120% of previous salary
- Minimum-salary player: Portion of minimum salary not reimbursed by the league
In the case of a Cavalier free agent like Anthony Parker, the cap hold this summer will be $4.275MM — because Parker will have Bird rights, his free agent amount is calculated by taking 190% of this year's $2.25MM salary.
Cap holds cannot exceed the player's maximum salary. So while the Cavs' Antawn Jamison has Bird rights like Parker, his free agent amount is not calculated in the same way. 150% of Jamison's $15.08MM 2011/12 salary would exceed his maximum salary, so his cap hold will be worth the max-salary for a player with 10+ years of NBA experience — likely $18MM+.
A cap hold for a restricted free agent can vary based on his contract status. A restricted free agent's cap hold is the greatest of:
- His free agent amount as determined by the above-mentioned criteria
- The amount of his qualifying offer
- The first-year salary from an offer sheet he signs with another team
Cavs swingman Alonzo Gee will qualify for restricted free agency this summer, coming off his third NBA season. Because he was earning the minimum salary, his cap hold would typically only be about $854K. Since he'll be a restricted free agent though, the amount of his qualifying offer, $1.06MM, will count against Cleveland's cap. If Gee eventually signs an offer sheet with another team that includes a first-year salary of, for instance, $4MM, that figure would count against Cleveland's cap until the team decided to match the offer or let Gee go.
If a team holds the rights to fewer than 12 players, cap holds worth the minimum rookie salary ($473,604) are assigned to fill out the roster. So if the Cavaliers chose to renounce their rights to all their free agents and release all the players on non-guaranteed contracts, the team would have five players and about $28.5MM left under contract. However, seven holds worth $473,604 would be added to the team's cap, reducing its total cap space by about $3.3MM.
Cap holds aren't removed from a team's books until the player signs a new contract or has his rights renounced by the club. For instance, since Wally Szczerbiak never signed elsewhere after reaching free agency with Cleveland, the Cavaliers still had an $18MM+ hold for Szczerbiak on their cap until they recently renounced him. By keeping Szczerbiak's free agent amount on their books, the Cavs were unable to claim room under the cap, but retained many of their cap exceptions that otherwise would've been lost had they renounced him and fallen too far below the cap.
The general purpose of a cap hold is to prevent teams from using room under the cap to sign free agents and then using Bird exceptions to re-sign their own free agents. If a team wants to take advantage of its cap space, it can renounce its rights to its free agents, eliminating those cap holds. However, doing so means the team will no longer hold any form of Bird rights for those players — if the team wants to re-sign those free agents, it would have to use its cap room or another form of cap exception.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon's Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
Deron Williams Leaning Toward Re-Signing?
The Nets made their Brooklyn move official this week, and now the summer's big question is whether Deron Williams will be joining them there next season. According to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News (via Twitter), everything he's hearing suggests Williams is "leaning toward" re-signing with the Nets. However, Bondy cautions that there are still plenty of variables in play, including the playoffs, the draft, and other free agent decisions (Twitter link).
Given the Nets' poor season and a handful of comments made by Williams over the course of the year, speculation has increased that the star point guard will be signing with the Mavericks or another non-Brooklyn team. When we asked last week whether Williams would re-sign with the Nets, more than 77% of poll respondents said no.
While it's still too early to say with any certainty what Williams is thinking, there have been some promising signs for Nets fans in the past week or two. The 27-year-old came away impressed after another visit to Brooklyn's Barclays Center, and told Bondy that he doesn't see a perfect situation out there in free agency. Nets coach Avery Johnson also expressed some optimism that Williams would be back next season.
Once he turns down his player option and tests free agency, as expected, Williams figures to have a handful of very interested suitors, but only the Nets could guarantee him a max contract of five years rather than four.
Knicks Notes: Stoudemire, Playoffs, Carmelo
The biggest story to come out of last night's Knicks/Heat contest didn't materialize on the court, where Miami took a 2-0 lead in the series. It happened on the way to the locker room after the game, when Amare Stoudemire took out his frustrations on a fire extinguisher, resulting in a lot of blood, a few stitches, and derisive pun-heavy headlines from the New York papers. Our Tuesday morning Knicks updates revolve around Stoudemire's lapse in judgment, so let's round them up in one place:
- Stoudemire is "almost certain" to miss Game Three in New York, and could be out for the entire series with a hand laceration, a source tells Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com.
- The injury is the latest low point in an agonizing, up-and-down Knicks season, writes Ken Berger of CBSSports.com.
- Carmelo Anthony tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports that he still believes he and Stoudemire can thrive alongside one another when both are healthy. The Knicks are just a .500 team since pairing the two stars, who are slated to earn a combined $40MM+ in each of the next three seasons.
Meet The Hoops Rumors Writing Team
Hoops Rumors currently features a team of five writers to bring you the latest NBA news, rumors, and analysis. Here are those writers:
Luke Adams is the lead writer, manager, and editor for Hoops Rumors. Luke began writing for MLB Trade Rumors in September 2009, contributing hundreds of posts to MLBTR over the next two-plus years before becoming the full-time editor, manager, and lead writer for Hoops Rumors in January 2012. He helped launch Pro Football Rumors in January 2014 before returning to Hoops Rumors in May 2016. Luke’s NBA fandom began in earnest in 1995, around the time Damon Stoudamire became the first draft pick to wear the expansion Toronto Raptors’ truly awful jersey.
Arthur Hill joined Hoops Rumors in 2014 as a staff writer. He is a newspaper editor with Trib Total Media in southwestern Pennsylvania and has been following basketball long enough to be a fan of both the NBA and ABA. He is a graduate of West Virginia University and covered Mountaineer basketball during the glory days of the Eastern Eight and Atlantic 10. His fondest memories as a player were scoring six points against a Harlem Globetrotters knock-off team and being dunked on by former NFL All-Pro linebacker Renaldo Turnbull.
Dana Gauruder joined Hoops Rumors in February 2015 as a staff writer. He also writes for The Sports Xchange as its primary correspondent in Michigan, covering the Detroit Pistons, Detroit Lions, Detroit Tigers and Michigan State University football and basketball. He was also a Pistons correspondent for NBA.com for five seasons, covering all of their home games. From 1996-2009, Dana was a staff writer for the Oakland (Mich.) Press and was the paper’s Pistons and NBA beat reporter from the 1999-2000 season until he left the newspaper. He also covered Michigan State in 2011-12 for CBSSports.com Rapid Reports. Dana has covered a number of major sporting events, including the NBA Finals, the Eastern Conference Finals, the World Series, the Rose Bowl, the NCAA Tournament, the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Breeders Cup.
Alex Kirschenbaum joined Hoops Rumors in November 2019 as a staff writer. A Northwestern University graduate, Alex also covers basketball, football, and a sprinkling of golf and tennis for Sports Illustrated and Newsweek. He has written about NBA basketball for several other sites, including Grizzly Bear Blues (via SB Nation), Pippen Ain’t Easy (via FanSided), and Last Word On Sports. He also writes about film for director Joe Dante’s site Trailers From Hell.
Rory Maher was a Hoops Rumors reader for several years before becoming a staff writer in September 2021. He previously released analytical NBA articles independently. When watching games, he particularly enjoys crisp ball movement and good defense. Rory started the Trade Breakdown series for Hoops Rumors, which can be found right here.